Coastal Concerts awards 2019 music scholarships

For the past 12 years, Coastal Concerts has sponsored a music scholarship program for deserving high school students. This year the organization expanded the program to include middle school students.

Coastal Concerts’ 2019 winners include three high school students and two middle school students.

Jessica Yulin Zhang, a recent graduate of St. Thomas More Academy, has studied classical voice for five years and has played piano for nine. Her past vocal experience includes attending the Delaware All-State Chorus, Delaware Governor’s School for Excellence in Music, and the National Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall. She also participated in vocal and instrumental ensembles in her school. She was recently selected to represent Delaware in the All-East Treble Choir. Zhang plans to attend college with a major in engineering and a minor in music.

Aria Gill, a seventh-grader at Lighthouse Christian School, has studied the Suzuki violin method for seven years with the Milford branch of the Music School of Delaware. Her teacher is Jacob Colby. She also enjoys performing with the First State Fiddlers, the Milford String Orchestra and her school praise team.

Sussex Countian Lillian Williams has dedicated time to studying the flute. As a seventh-grader in 2018, she earned a seat in the Sussex County Honors Band. In 2019, she earned first chair flute in SCHB. She received the academic achievement award for band in May 2018. She studies under the direction of Robert Barbarita at Beacon Middle School and under Leslie Munro’s tutelage for private instruction. She spends part of her summers studying at New England Music Camp.

Juliana Castillo, 16, is home-schooled in New Castle County. She studies viola with Shelley Beard Santore at the Music School of Delaware.

New Castle County resident Nicolette Marie Sullivan-Cozza, 16, a student at Cab Calloway School of the Arts, studies viola with Kerri Ryan, assistant principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and with Peter Slowik at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

These awards are made possible in part through the generous support of Pete and Joanne Harrigan through the Dorothy and Elizabeth Musical Scholarship Fund established in honor of their mothers. Other scholarship donors this year include Sussex County Council and Cape Henlopen Elks Lodge 2540 in Lewes. Since 2006, 35 students have received awards totaling $38,500.